76% of workers in the MENA region prefer remote work, finds a survey

76% of workers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are satisfied with remote work, and do not want to return to the workplace, finds Bayt, a job-searching website in the MENA region.

Amid the emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant, many organizations have delayed returning to the office, and those that already compelled their workers to work in-house are moving back toward online or hybrid working arrangements.

The restrictions of social separation imposed by the COVID-19 outbreak on almost all parts of the world led companies and government institutions to explore new working methods to maintain business continuity, including communication programs and remote business management, including the “hybrid working” system, which combines online and in-person work, or divides employees into must-attendants and telecommuters.

Having spent the last two years learning how to use Zoom, to communicate using emails, and to sound less awkward while asking, “Can you hear me?” in every work meeting, the majority, according to the survey, are getting used to working from the coziness of home, while few others cannot wait to come back to the office workspace.

Fadwa, who works as a community manager, does not think it is necessary to take two means of transport to commute to the office every day, as her work is only dependent on her own laptop and social media skills.

According to Global Work Analytics, if people in Fadwa were to halve the amount of time they spend on transportation to and from work, harmful carbon dioxide emissions would be cut by 54 million tons.

Meanwhile, Chaimae, a teacher in a rural area, hopes that the new variant will not stop in-person classes as she struggled in the first year of quarantine to contact her students since most of them do not have the technological devices to study, while the others grappled with understanding the lessons amidst the lack of personal contact between the teacher and the student.

“I guess we as teachers, we really need to work from schools to ensure a proper education for this generation,” said Chaimae in her statement to Hespress Eng.

International and national studies indicate that online education is less effective than in-person education, as many students struggle with comprehending information while staring at a screen alone, deprived of the company of their classmates.

On the other hand, the results of a survey conducted by the English “Rights of Women” organization indicated that while the opportunities for working women to be subjected to harassment in their workplaces decreased, a new type of harassment emerged through remote communication programs.

About half of the participating women who were harassed in their offices confirmed that they continued to suffer online.

Meanwhile, Marouane described a suitable working environment for a home office as a luxury not everyone can afford. “Calmness, autonomy, and appropriate digital devices, not everyone has them,” said the young Moroccan who works in the digital industry.

More than 89% of respondents to the Bayt.com survey agree with Marouane’s opinion, as they expect that companies in MENA will favor employees with home office capabilities over those without.

The respondents fear that the health measures will become a new method for selecting employees, taking into account the ability to communicate remotely.

Despite the different opinions, the pandemic introduced, indeed, new work cultures that led to new opportunities in the workforce, shattering the myth of “no job can be done” outside the offices’ four walls.